


Happy is the Home

by Tabithian



Series: Nine Lives [3]
Category: Batman (Comics), DCU, DCU - Comicverse
Genre: Alternate Universe, Crack, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-07-18
Updated: 2012-07-18
Packaged: 2017-11-10 06:00:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 752
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/462991
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tabithian/pseuds/Tabithian
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He doesn't actually answer to Catlad, but it's what the press has taken to calling him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Happy is the Home

He doesn't actually answer to Catlad, but it's what the press has taken to calling him. Not really surprising, considering that for the most part they've proven themselves to be amazingly lacking in creativity. He lets them have it, though, because it's not important. _They're_ not important, fickle and cruel, looking for the next big story, the next big scandal.

Tim's never chosen a name for himself, but Selina usually calls him kitten or Stray when they're working, and Tim when they're not. Batman calls him, The Child, and That Boy, and other things along that line. Robin calls him a menace on his good days, and a worthless thief on his bad ones. Nightwing calls him kiddo, and kitten in equal measures. Red Hood calls him brat, and punk, and a pain in his ass. 

Batgirl calls him adorable, and Catboy because she loves trying to annoy him, but she's smart and funny and _good_ at what she does. (Aside from Damian, she's his favorite to play with.) Oracle, on the few occasions they've had to talk also calls him Catboy, a never-ending source of amusement for her and Batgirl that Tim doesn't mind so much. It's a small thing, really, and does him no harm.

"A big black Bat told me you led his little bird on a merry chase the other night," she says, voice full of amusement.

Tim smiles, slow, satisfied. Robin is getting better, but he still has so much room for improvement. If a little game of tag across Gotham's rooftops will help in that, who is Tim to say no? (Half a truth, half a lie, the important part is the chase. Getting Robin to play. Even big, dark, and gloomy gives into the urge once in a while, chases Selina for the sake of it. Not so rare as one would think, that.) 

"Gotham's boring without them." Boring, and darker, more dangerous. 

Selina laughs, drops a hand in his hair as she passes by. "Exactly," she says. "Be careful with this one, kitten." It's a warning, or as much as one she'll give him on matters like this. "He's too much like his father." 

Tim smiles because yes and no. Nightwing's had a stabilizing effect on Robin, has clearly tamed him from the way Robin treats him - not with the usual disdain and air of superiority others so often get. One part Bat, one part demon - oh, yes, Tim knows who his mother is – and one part Nightwing's. (All Gotham's, though. She loves her Bats and her Birds much the same way a spoiled child does. Carelessly, knowing there will be another new toy when the first breaks.)

When he looks up, it's to see Selina watching him, a smile playing at the corner of her mouth. "And you," she says, laughter in her voice, her eyes. "You are too much like me."

One part Cat, one part little boy lost, one part - that last is to be decided at a later date, a work in progress. (Bird maybe, or perhaps more aptly, bird trainer? )

The Robins have always made for the best, not toys, no, but playmates, yes. Usually against their better judgment, their will, as they chased him, tried to catch him, but always, always fun. (The way Selina and he play, pull pigtails, is by committing petty crimes - and they are petty crimes for them, a paltry handful of jewels if that to get their attention, to start a new chase.) 

"You say that like it's a bad thing." It could be, if they weren't who they are. But they are, and it isn't, and that's the important thing. 

"Hmm, I did, didn't I?" Selina muses, smile fully taking form. "Silly of me." Another smile, and she's gone, off to plan how best to get Batman's attention this time. (She's on the side of good now, or what is gernally considered to good. Partly to set a good example for Tim, and partly for Batman, Bruce.)

Selina worries, sometimes. About Tim and this life he's chosen with her. He steals, yes, a good little thief, but. That's not all he is. It's not all Selina is, either. 

People forget that sometimes, but Tim never will. Selina gave him a home that feels like one, that isn't just a an empty house full of ghosts and echoes of what could have been. She took him in, gave him a home and that isn't something he will ever take for granted or forget.


End file.
